Blogs and Commentary

Working For The Weekend: MLL Week 1 Notes

Check out a complete Major League Lacrosse season preview
here. And below take in some assorted
news and notes in advance of MLL’s season-opening weekend.
Three games involving the league’s six teams are set for
Saturday: Long Island at Boston, Rochester at Chesapeake, and
Hamilton at Denver, each set for 7 p.m. starts local time.

Clean Slate

Tom Slate makes his Denver head coaching debut after being
promoted from assistant coach by general manager and former head
coach Brian Reese, who shed his coaching duties in the offseason.
The idea behind the coaching move was the shake things up for the
team after its fifth straight playoff appearance without a
championship game victory. Slate was previously head coach of the
now-defunct San Francisco Dragons in 2008 and was an assistant
coach during the then-Philadelphia Barrage’s championship
years.

“I’m real excited,” Slate said. “Last
year I was able to understand what the Outlaws put into the team.
It’s a dream come true to be involved in the franchise like
this.”

Seibald Out, Clausen on Mend

Slate will make his coaching debut without the playing services
of the Outlaws’ star, third-year pro Max Seibald. The former
Cornell midfielder had a 20-minute surgical procedure on his knee
and will be out several weeks.

In an unrelated injury note, Denver defenseman Ken Clausen is
targeting a June return to the field after tearing his ACL and
medial meniscus in a preseason game with the National Lacrosse
League’s Colorado Mammoth in December.

Crotty: Year Two

“We think he’s going to bust out this year,”
Rochester coach B.J. O’Hara said of attackman Ned Crotty, the
reigning MLL rookie of the year. Last year, Crotty played on attack
with Kevin and Mike Leveille, neither of whom is with the team
anymore. But that may be a good thing.

“He and Mike liked the same spot on the field,”
O’Hara said of Crotty of Mike Leveille. “Ned was
actually playing out of position a bit. We had to put him on the
right side. He’s on the other side now and he’s going
to be a little bit more comfortable.”

Crotty this season will be grouped with Casey Powell, and the
team is still trying to find a third attackman after Buggs Combs
(who came out of retirement) suffered a season-ending injury in
training camp last week. Josh Coveleski, who played with the
Bayhawks for part of last season, former Syracuse attackman Greg
Niewieroski, rookies Jordan McBride (Stony Brook) and Brian
Caulfield (Albany), and second-year pro Ari Sussman from Dartmouth
are in the mix for the third attack spot, O’Hara
said.

Inside the Poillon-Hardy Swap

The Outlaws and Chesapeake Bayhawks executed a trade this week
after the team's met last Saturday in Maryland for an exhibition.
Denver acquired midfielder Peet Poillon, the 2010 league most
improved player, in exchange for midfielder Dan Hardy. Hardy, the
2009 league rookie of the year, had new job commitments that would
make it tough on traveling to Denver this summer.

"It's not that we didn't want Dan, but we also wanted Peet,"
Slate said. "It was a match made in heaven here." Poillon finished
last seaon ranked third in the league in points. He is the fourth
former UMBC player on the Denver offense, joining Brendan Mundorf,
Drew Westervelt and Terry Kimener.

With Chesapeake, Hardy will join Steven Brooks, also acquired
via trade this offseason, and Kyle Dixon on the Bayhawks' first
midfield.

"That's a pretty good middie line," Bayhawks owner/coach Brendan
Kelly said. "The con is what is it going to do with the chemistry?
The pro is you're trading one all-star for another all-star. Dan
Hardy is a big presence, great team player. He's played with Steven
Brooks in the past [at Syracuse] so they have some great chemistry.
Peet is somebody Denver really wanted and it makes sense for both
teams."

Hamilton Goalie?

The Hamilton Nationals have goalies Scott Rodgers and Brett
Queener on the roster. Who will start Saturday night against
Denver? "It will be a game-time decision," Hamilton coach Regy
Thorpe said. "We're getting into town Friday night. The coaching
staff, we're still working on that."

Revamped Nats' D

Mainstay Brodie Merrill is back for the Nationals, as is
second-year pro Steve Waldeck. "Two fierce competitors at the
long-pole middie," Thrope said. But the team also added close
defenseman Sol Bliss in the offseason and drafted Steve Henderson
from Army with the intent of beefing up the close defense.

P.T. Ricci-Justin Smith trade

In another recent trade, Boston sent midfielder Justin Smith to
Chesapeake in exchange for defenseman P.T. Ricci and a fifth round
pick in the 2012 college draft. Smith will likely join Michael
Kimmel and Ben Hunt on the Bayhawks' second midfield line.

Ricci provides the Boston defense depth. "He played in nine
games for Chesapeake last year and was one of their top 3 ground
ball guys," Boston coach Bill Daye said. "Guys like that are very
successful in this league and very important." Daye plans to pair
Ricci with Kyle Sweeney when needed up top. "We want to make sure
when we do bump up two poles, there are two guys who are accustomed
to playing up top, who are very good at doing their job getting the
ball off the turf and creating transition."